The essence: The film is interesting and holds promise for the first 25 minutes, post that, it is just the brilliance of Mr Bachchan that Ramu banks on. But how long can an actor hold up a film without a script to back his performance?

Sarkar Raj, the sequel to Sarkar (2005) which released in June 2008, was gripping and had neat political twists and turns. It was a thriller to the core. The same cannot be said about Sarkar 3, the third instalment in the Sarkar series.

The film has a few powerful individual performances, but the plot carries no weight and director Ram Gopal Varma juggles with very few elements to match the mood and feel of the earlier two parts. The end, when it comes, is not only shocking, but also perplexing. Looks like the director ran out of ideas and decided to twist the tale to feed the tail into the tiger’s mouth!

Subhash Nagre (Amitabh Bachchan) has the same intensity of the earlier two parts and considering it is almost 12 years ago that he first set out for this series, the manner in which he maintains the flow of his character is what good acting is all about.

Apart from him there is Ronit Roy, who mercifully, is seen in a more subdued avatar other than the bad man character that we have seen him portray time and again [ad nauseam]. As the trusted lieutenant of Nagre, Roy is perfectly cast and he essays his role to a nicety. Amit Sadh, too pitches in with a perfect portrayal of youth, arrogance and a devil-may-care attitude. Manoj Bajpayee displays his form of old that made him such a sought-after actor. Watch him take on Sarkar with the media in full attendance. Brilliant!

The others are perplexed for want of better fleshing out of their character. Take for instance Jackie Shroff. He is always shown in stylish clothes, near a pool with a mobile and a buxom babe. He mouths a few lines into the phone before belittling the babe with some irrelevant lines like, “Meri ek biwi thi. Uska ek dil tha. Tumahare paas sab kuch hai, dil nahi.”

Poor girl, she is not supposed to ask questions, just be a morale booster for Jackie who perhaps is happy that she is a prop to ensure that he has no role in the film.

Bharat Dabholkar comes in for a few scenes as a union leader and has a failed body language for his part as a union leader. He stands defiantly in front of Sarkar, legs apart and goes, “Mein, Mein Sarkar…” when grilled by the iron man!

For all the obvious flaws, Ramu makes up with good camera angles and body movements that lay emphasis on the mood and mannerisms.

However, if he had paid attention to the plot like he did in the second instalment, things would have been different.

Shankar and Vishnu Nagre are all referred to as Shivaji (Amit Sadh as Vishnu’s son) makes an entry in Sarkar 3.

The film is interesting and holds promise for the first 25 minutes, post that, it is just the brilliance of Mr Bachchan that Ramu banks on. But how long can an actor hold up a film without a script to back his performance?